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11 of the most mysterious and shocking parts of our history unearthed and here are the facts about the artefacts & structures! Subscribe to Talltanic http://goo.gl/wgfvrr 5. Troy The ancient city of Troy was once rumored to be a myth based on Homer’s tales. That all changed in 1870 when Heinrich Schliemann, a controversial figure who is often credited as being the “Father of Archaeology,” unearthed the actual city at a site called Hisarlik which was located in northwestern Turkey. Schliemann was greatly criticized for using dynamite at the site, potentially destroying artifacts and important discoveries. It is generally believed that Schliemann was a swindler who conned his way into the discovery of Troy by teaming up with Frank Calvert, a man who had already started excavating the site. After teaming up they had a falling out over Schliemann’s excavation techniques. In his journals Schliemann never gives Calvert any credit for discovering Troy. Gold jewelry and other objects were discovered at the site that Schliemann referred to as “Priam’s Treasure.” He claimed the jewelry once belonged to Helen of Troy and even had his wife model the jewelry for the public.It was later discovered that this was impossible as the finds were one thousand years older than Helen’s time. Despite all of this controversy, the discovery made everyone realize the legitimacy and accuracy of Homer’s epic. 4. Dead Sea Scrolls Two Bedouin boys stumbled upon the cave at Qumran in 1947, where these ancient texts were discovered. Over the next 9 years 981 different texts were found in eleven caves in the same area. The scrolls are from between the last three centuries B.C. to the first century A.D. The findings revolutionized our perceptions of early Jewish and Christian religion and pushed back our knowledge of biblical manuscripts by a thousand years. The manuscripts found contain Biblical and fictional works, as well as prayers and legal texts. The scrolls are mostly written in Hebrew and seem to be from the library of a Jewish sect. The library was hidden in the caves due to the First Jewish Revolt and the advance of the Roman army against the Jews. 3. Machu Picchu It is rare to get such an undisturbed view of history as we got when Machu Picchu was discovered in 1911 by Yale professor Hiram Bingham. This Inca royal city was mysteriously abandoned on a mountaintop and was left untouched by the colonial world. The structures found included palaces and plazas, temples (including the Temple of the Sun) and homes. The Inca had no written language, so no clues were left as to what the purpose of the site was or why it was abandoned. It could have been a military stronghold, a ceremonial site or a retreat for ruling elites. Today Machu Picchu is a tourist destination that is visited by more than 75,000 people annually. 2. Terracotta Army This discovery single handedly sparked Western interest in Chinese and eastern culture and revitalized Chinese archaeology. Also referred to as the Tomb of 10,000 Warriors, it is a form of funerary art that was buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China in around 210 B.C. The purpose of building this elaborate collection of sculptures was that they were thought to protect the emperor in his afterlife. This amazing collection of art was discovered by farmers digging a water well on March 29, 1974. The tomb of the emperor itself remains unopened possibly due to concerns about the preservation of its artifacts. 1. Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799 by French soldiers rebuilding a fort in Egypt and was the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. It wasn’t until 1822 that the stone was fully decoded by Jean-Francois Champollion and all other deciphering of ancient languages were based on its precedents. It provided modern man with a window into the history of ancient Egypt. The stone itself was made in 196 B.C. and has writing on it in both Egyptian and Greek with three different types of scripts; hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek. The stone was written by a group of Egyptian priests in honor of King Ptolemy V, the pharaoh of Egypt. It is on public display at the British Museum and is the most visited object within the museum.